Marine Phytoplankton: Long Chain EPA Oil for Vegans

 By Piers Moore-Ede

In the vegan community, the debate about long chain EPA has been running for a long time. While vegans can generally obtain (and indeed exceed) almost everything in the carnivorous and vegetarian diets through careful dietary choices, the long chain fatty acids present in certain cold-water fish are hard to acquire. This article will explore the possibility that marine phytoplankton, long the food choice of whales, is the perfect place to get it.

What are the Important Omega 3 Fatty Acids?

These are:

•    EPA: eicosapentaenoic acid
•    ALA: - alpha-linolenic acid
•    DHA - docosahexaenoic acid

Amongst these, it appears to be EPA and DHA which exhibit the most potent benefits for human health. As luck would have it for vegans (until now!) traditional plant sources don’t contain either of them – it’s oily fish like salmon, mackerel or krill which offer the best sources.

Whilst some people point out that the human body has the capacity to convert ALA (found in seeds like linseed) to EPA, the truth is it does so only poorly. Even someone who consumes a prodigious amount of flax oil wouldn’t be receiving the same benefits as someone who is ingesting fish oil directly.

Why is Long Chain EPA so powerful?

It was contact with traditional peoples like the Inuit which first prompted scientists to investigate whether a diet high in fish oil could offer health benefits. It turns out these oils offer incredible benefits (1) to cardiovascular health, neurological function, and skin conditions like eczema, to name a few. Scientists believe these affects are due partly to the ways essential fatty acids affect cellular communication, and partly due to their inherent anti-inflammatory properties. Research suggests these oils also offer overall metabolic benefits (2) promoting lean tissue mass and counteracting obesity.

Phytoplankton: The ‘Fish Oil’ Solution for Vegans

Algal Oil is one of the fastest growing supplements in the health industry. In the last decade, scientists have realised that rather than relying on fish oil supplements in an increasingly toxic ocean, it’s possibly to harvest the oil directly from the place the fish get their own supply: algae like marine phytoplankton.
Phytoplankton is a single-celled plant, 5-7 times smaller than a red blood cell, which photosynthesizes energy from sunlight. Beloved by vast sea mammals such as whales, and smaller creatures like salmon and krill, these plants are the very source of the fatty acids which give fish their health-giving properties. In recent years, aquaculturists have perfected the art of creating artificial plankton blooms in indoor greenhouses called bioreactors. The resulting mass of phytoplankton is then carefully dried and pressed to release the health-giving algal oils. The result is the world’s first vegan source of long-chain essential fatty acids. It has the added benefit of being produced in laboratory conditions in purified water, meaning it is completely pure. Most oceanic fish are now of questionable provenance and likely contaminated in various ways, especially with heavy metals.

Why take marine phytoplankton?

As well as being one of the most nutritionally dense substances you are ever likely to ingest, marine phytoplankton is alkalising, and incredibly easily absorbed, due to its tiny cell size. It may be this factor which makes it such an instant source of energy – but athletes and those battling fatigue have been some of the earliest adopters.
Users generally note a sustained, balanced energy, clear skin, and deeper sleep. Many people with compromised immunity are also noting its usefulness in promoting general wellbeing and increased resistance.

Is there a downside to phytoplankton?

If there is a downside, it’s the price. While cheaper pond-grown plankton supplements are now available (think pond scum!), the real deal, grown in closed-loop bioreactors is expensive to produce and thus makes it a premium health supplement. This is likely to change as the market grows and more people come to know about this powerful, healthful green powder.

Author Bio

Piers Moore-Ede is the author of 3 travel books, most recently Kaleidoscope City: A Year in Varanasi. He was so blown away by the power of phytoplankton, he’s started a website about it which you could read at Plankton for Health.

1/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4404917/ 
2/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25373098

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Misunderstanding veganism within the bodybuilding world

I will try my very best here not to make this sound like a personal attack, but I will be using one person as an example of the confusion that reins within the meat-eating community of bodybuilders concerning the fact that some people choose not to use meat & dairy.  At the moment marketer Vince Delmonte has started an attack on bodybuilders who choose not to eat meat or dairy.  I'll put the links below:

He has also done a blogpost here I suggest you view the above & the article as you'll need those to see what he is claiming.  I think you'll find it interesting how people are affected by words & how they can be confused by meanings to draw totally incorrect conclusions from sometimes correct ideas.
At the very beginning of the video he says that he, as a trainer, cannot help people gain muscle, loss fat or improve health using a vegan (or even vegetarian) diet  To paraphrase him he says "You are wasting your time & his time" by trying to achieve any of those goals.  This statement is saying more about the trainer, than the actual possibility of training without meat or dairy.  Let's look at these goals he cannot help if you eat plant-based:

1/ Health - wow!  I do not know where to start with this one.  The science is pretty clear that you have improved fat levels, improvement of multiple health-factors that positively effect health (if you want some references on general or specific health issues let me know in the comments), but think blood pressure, cardiovascular health, cancer risk....I could go on, but you get the idea, if you want a quick look at few of the benefits scroll through a few of these pages on the messageboard& check out some of the health benefits mentioned there.

2/ Losing fat.  I do not know where Vince has been.  I'm guessing that as he said he has not touched a trainee since 2002 unless they ate meat means he has also not seen the research since that time!  Do I need links for this?  Seriously if you want links to studies that show going vegan will help you loose bodyfat I have many, it can be done easily, infact a wholefood vegan diet is probably a very easy way to eat & lose bodyfat.

3/ Now let's look at hypertrophy & vegan diets.  First off there isn't too much literature out there on the subject.  But, there is some truth to the idea that if you eat the same amount of protein from either an animal or plant source, then you will get less muscle mass per gram of protein consumed (I thought I had better reference this one, so here it is there are a couple of others, but the few studies done on this have found similar results).  This does NOT mean that results will be inferior when training for size,it just means you have to eat slightly more protein than you would as a meat eater to hold similar levels of muscle (I do understand that there are a few outliers who buck this trend, but the science, so far, says that you need a little bit more protein than the average meat-eater to achieve the same results).  We will come back to the 'why' in a while (if that is ok with you) as I want to go through the written article Vince produced - it's interesting to see exactly how he goes wrong with his assessment.

Point 1 in his article "Protein intake doesn’t necessarily mean protein availability"

As a rule you do need slightly more protein when eating a plant-based diet, than you do when eating a meat-based diet.  Unfortunately Vince stops there.  That's all he needs to know right?  Well, actually no, what he actually needs to know is why as this is very, very important & actually effects muscle building, fat levels & numerous other factors.  The main factor that appears to affect protein assimilation is fibre.  The fibre stops a little of the protein being assimilated into the body, but it also does a number of other interesting things. It binds with toxins & takes them safely through the body, which is useful, as you become a less toxic individual, but fibre is also the main way that oestrogens are removed from the body.  I'll go in this a little more deeply as I think you'll find this useful to actually understand the mechanism.  The body dumps oestrogens into the alimentary canal all the time, females dump way more than males, but both sexes do the same thing.  Generally speaking vegans have much higher levels of fibre than meat eaters, so yes, it does hold some of the protein as it passes through, but the fibre also grabs oestrogen, infact fibre is one of the main methods of oestrogen removal the body has.  The issue is that meat-eaters & their lower fibre intakes do not have enough fibre to bind the oestrogen successfully & so it simply becomes re-assimilated further down the alimentary canal.  So, you get the nightmare scenario of the body trying to dump oestrogen but failing due to lack of fibre!  So, is that slight loss of protein more important than that?  Personally I do not think so.  If you consider that by any standards western people consume well above any biological need for protein then you can see that the idea is quite odd....but, the argument may go, you may not have a biological need for these high levels of protein, but to achieve the maximum muscle mass possible for a human being then you may need supra-intakes of protein?  There is some evidence that higher protein may increase muscle synthesis (or decrease muscle breakdown?), but if you really want more protein, then you can easily focus on protein rich plant-based foods, or even do what many meat-eating athletes do & drink some protein powder.  A second point often raised is that plant-based protein sources do not induce the same muscle building effects as their animal-based equivalents.  Again, there is some truth to this. Things like whey protein have higher levels of leucine than many plant foods.  The good news is you can add leucine to things like seitan or rice & bring there muscle building activity to equal levels (see this study with seitan - sorry it's an animal study, but it's the only one we've got right now using seitan, also a study about rice protein here - it's not made clear but this study again balances the amounts of leucine, in this case by increasing dosage).  So, adding leucine (or a high leucine food like yeast), can really boost the muscle building capacity of the foods you eat, so you should consider this when planning your goals.  I will point out that although science at the moment suggests high protein diets seem safe, for the average person boosting protein is not necessary it is only those looking for maximising possible muscle gains that need to even consider it at all.  Vince does mention one study where strength trained females have their muscle mass compared.  I'm not sure which study that is, but the results are meaningless with the information given.  We have no idea about build, starting weights, time training, the type of training done, nothing.  This is correlation at it's worst.  You'd not want to measure people, but compare results.  If you want to be truly accurate then you'd also use people who have been on their diets for long enough that the microbiota in their alimentary canal has modified to their present diet (as vegan gut bacteria is different, see here).  I also find some issues with studies that keep some people one their present meat-eating diet & then make others change their diet to vegetarian, vegan or similar.  These are nearly always self-selective (you choose your own foods) & so you are expecting someone to make a transition to a completely new diet & then while the million & one changes are occurring internally & they are still experimenting with strange food that they make gains?  I'd like to how the average westerner did if they suddenly went onto a traditional Eskimo diet (raw fish & seal meat eating the guts, eyeballs etc) or a Masai diet (blood & meat mainly).  They may have not grown straight away & could have the odd digestive issue as well!   This is inherent in any dietary change whether positive or negative & researchers should know this!
So, to round this off, yes you will need slightly more protein than a meat eater, you may need to consider your eating a little bit more, but you get less oestrogen in you & you generally have more phytonutrients (chemicals in plants thought to help the body fight disease & stay healthy), have less risk of cancer & less risk of cardiovascular disease.  I think we've covered point 1 fairly well, let's move onto point 2.

Point 2 in the article "Hormonal Imbalances Caused by the Vegetarian Diet"

 There is simply no evidence that vegan diets cause hormone imbalances?  The literature does not say this, there is zero evidence of this.  The only people who actually tout this idea are a group called the Weston Price Foundation. They are a lobby group for meat & dairy interests & have tried to mix in lumps of truth without outright lies to get their agenda pushed through various health & Government organisations.  The one example he uses is soya (using another of the Weston Price Foundations favourite foods to attack).  His claim is that the phytoestrogens in plants bind with oestrogen receptors & so act like oestrogen.  I do not want to turn this into an article about soya.  Vince has not really read up much beyond the Weston Price Foundation pages on this one.  Most of the research actually points to soya being a form of adaptogen, that is if your levels are low it can act in an oestrogen-like manner, but if levels are high it acts like an anti-oestrogen & so actually blocks the receptors.  This is still only theory, but here is one study that looked at the research so far.  I can tell you now where all the negative research has come from - rodents - rodents do not do well on soya so disregard any studies done not using humans (as there are load of human studies now). One final point, there is one study using humans that does show marked decreases in testosterone in humans, the 'Goodin' study is used by most of the anti-soya lobby to prove their case.  Unfortunately for those nay-sayers the study has a serious flaw.  The whole drop in testosterone was caused by one male (probably coming off of steroids in my view as I can see nothing other than a life threatening disease causing that kind of drop).  I cannot fathom how any scientist could have missed this effect, but they did & so got flawed results - here is the rebuttal of that study, you can see clearly how it is flawed!  I'll leave the soya there, if you want more (& even want to join in) there is a thread over on our messageboard here  that covers many of the major studies, possible issues & other factors about soya.  Needless to say I have no issues with a normal intake of soya in a persons diet.
Next up he covers cholesterol & seems to get confused.  Vince says the body needs cholesterol (which is true), but humans make all the cholesterol we ever need, we do not need to ingest it?  Vince appears to be confused about the need of cholesterol & the source?  He then goes on to extrapolate that as vegans & vegetarians do not eat as much cholesterol, then they must have lower testosterone (as cholesterol is used to produce testosterone).  You actually make cholesterol from saturated fat, this can be found in many, many plantfoods - coconut oil & palm oil are the most famous, but most plant oil has some saturated fat in it, even the much touted olive oil contains a reasonable amount!  So, you need not worry.  If your testosterone levels drop due to low levels of cholesterol & this is due to not eating enough saturated fat, then go eat some nuts, some olives or a coconut & you'll be getting more than enough saturated fat to produce adequate testosterone.  Vince also misses an important point when it comes to testosterone, it is not actually total, or even free testosterone that affects results, unless you have massive gains or drops.  The main factor is actually the testosterone:oestrogen ratio that is the real 'killer or winner' in the race for muscle size.  Now think back to earlier in this piece...what was the one thing that a wholefood vegan diet does, that most meat-eating diets fail at? ... removing oestrogen from the body!  So, even if testosterone is slightly lower the overall effect is actually positive!  I'll include one study that shows free testosterone is similar between diets here &  one that shows differences of both testosterone & oestrogen here as you can see this question has not been fully answered & is not just a simple 'measure the total' answer as lots of factors effect the final result.
Lastly Vince attacks vegetarian & vegan diets due to an imbalance in the omega-6:omega-3 ratios.  In studies this has been shown to be true, but this is not an inherent aspect of the diet, but incorrect dietary choices people are making.  Is he arguing that meat-eaters do not have to watch their diet?  Most bodybuilders I know are very, VERY strict about their diets, eating unvarying, boring meals.  A vegan does not have to go that far unless they are aspiring to be a bodybuilder, all they need to do if make sure they eat a source of omega-3 fatty acid in the morning (think flax, chia seeds, hemp, walnuts or even an algae-based DHA/EPA pill if you like) & do not go crazy with your omega-6 fatty acids the rest of the day.  It is a non-issue, if you are eating a decent diet (if you'd like more about Essential Fatty Acids then let me know below & I'll put something together for you).  Lastly he does point out that the only way to get enough omega-3 is through fish oil - this is incorrect as not only can you get omega-3 in the form of ALA & convert it to DHA/EPA (providing that fat is not competing with omega-6 fatty acids hence have your ALA, such as flax, chia or hemp first thing in the morning), but you can also get the oil directly from where fish get it, which is from algae, you can buy DHA/EPA oil pills that are the same stuff as fish have eaten, but as it is lower down the food chain, you have less risk of contamination than you have from fish oil.  So, even if you want to take a DHA/EPA pill, then just buy algae-derived version & cut out the fish!  I think we have worked our way through point 2 enough, so let's move on to point 3.

Point 3 "Nutrient Deficiencies in the Vegetarian Diet"

With this one Vince has an uphill struggle as every major dietary organisation on earth (that I've heard of anyway) accepts that a properly planned vegan diet has no nutritional deficiencies, but let's see what Vince has to say!  B-vitamins are actually not an issue with vegetarians or vegans, actually they tend to get more of all the B vitamins except B12.  With B12 you should take a supplement or eat fortified foods.  We have all heard of people who have survived without any obvious source of B12, but this is what I call an 'unnecessary risk factor' your risk of deficiency drops to very low if you just supplement, so why take an unnecessary risk with your health?  Next up we have zinc, it is true that some studies show a lower overall zinc intake amongst both vegetarians and vegans, that is down to bad dietary choices, not the diet itself, just eat more foods that contain zinc, here's a link to some foods you can try to include in your diet...but Vince says even if you eat enough zinc (& other minerals) you damn plant-eaters are consuming all those nasty phytates - won't they block all your zinc & iron....well no they won't actually.  If Vince had looked at the research since 2002 he would have seen that phytates have not only been seen to act differently within humans, but that they also have positive effects.  I'll let you have two studies here to make my point, the first shows clearly that if the body adapts to phytates then it becomes a non-issue as your friendly bacteria deals with it, click here for that study, next I'll include an overview of phytates & how they are not simply negative, but may also help prevent cancer & have many other positive aspects to this misunderstood component of food, click here for that one.  As I said all the major dietary organisations state clearly that a properly planned vegetarian or vegan diet has no nutritional deficiencies.  Vince has not really proved his case with the above example, if those are his only evidence, then he is wrong.

Vinces final points

Vince sums up by saying that based on all the research (he must have read different research to me?) you need to eat meat, dairy & plants to be a bodybuilder.  If you cannot you must supplement virtually everything (which isn't true, you really need to supplement no more than a meat eating bodybuilder does), you should avoid soya foods (I do not agree with this - I do not suggest you eat mainly soya foods, but having tofu on occasion or a little soya milk will not have any negative effects, just do not overdo any single type of food, that is just common sense-for more read the soya thread mentioned above). He would strongly recommend that no bodybuilder ever become a vegetarian or vegan.
He does mention one odd thing.  He says "...Take a fish oil supplement, or if you can’t, at least take an algae supplement, which isn’t quite as good but is better than nothing...".  The oil from algae-based DHA/EPA is not inferior to fish oil.  If you want an actual breakdown, then fish oil is actually inferior as it does not contain only DHA/EPA, but a fare amount of unnecessary saturated fat (if you want extra saturated fat there are MUCH cheaper ways of getting it), there is also the possibility of toxic contamination as the fish used for fat extraction are near the top of the food chain than algae - which is at the very bottom.  Algae-based DHA/EPA is the superior choice in terms of purity, amount of DHA/EPA per calorie & safety.  His statement makes no sense - on what did he base that statement?   - For those interested here's an example using cod liver oil which is a fifth saturated fat.

My thoughts.

Here are a few random thoughts.  I've trained people for going on a decade now.  I have had no trouble helping people gain muscle, lose fat or improve their health while eating plant-based?  Infact I do not know of any other trainer who cannot do this except Vince?  Then again, I associate with people who tend to continue their education as it is their passion, for myself I've not only increased my abilities to train people, but I've also taken many courses in nutrition (I became a clinical nutritionist some time ago, but I still take courses at universities around the world increasing my nutritional knowledge), I've also studied massage so it can help my clients recover better & as I know their bodies so well this synthesis can really help more than going to someone who doesn't understand your training & what you are going through. I don't do this for work, but as it is a passion to continue to learn & grow.  I surround myself with like-minded people who love to search out knowledge & discover.  So, unlike Vince who has not trained a vegetarian since 2002 we continue to advance our knowledge in the field.
I have nothing against Vince, I don't even know the guy, but I would ask you hold back from any vitriol or other attacks.  I do encourage you to engage with him in a polite way, make corrections or offer suggestions to him about how he may modernise his knowledge in the field.  Feel free to quote any of the above (in context of course).  I really feel that this guy is somewhat confused about both diet & training, so would actually benefit from people helping, mentoring & advising him, not un-thought out attacks.  It's a shame that in this day & age we still have people living with 20th Century ideas about training & diet.

REVIEW: Nuique DHA/EPA pills

The brand new algae-based DHA/EPA pill on the market is from Nuique.  But before I get into that lets talk about DHA/EPA in general terms.  DHA & EPA are the oils that gained fame through fish oil products.  You can actually create DHA & EPA yourself from oils found in walnuts, flax seed (linseed), hemp seeds or chia seeds.  I suspect a lot of you are taking at least one of these regularly so why do you need a DHA/EPA pill at all if you can make it yourself?
For those in training (whether for health, competition, muscle gain or fat-loss) it is a matter of getting 'optimal' amounts.  Everything from gut health, stress, enzyme limitations & even activity levels can affect the transition of the omega 3 fatty acid ALA into DHA or EPA.  These fats are actually vital to health & for anyone in training you could think of these fats as great for repair & creation of cells, for maximising hormones & they are also used by the brain for nerve repair & synapse function.
Assuming you eat something like walnuts, flax seeds or hemp you probably won't become deficient in DHA/EPA, but you may not reach optimal levels, so you may be training your butt off, resting enough, cutting down on stress, but still not getting all the gains you are after.  Having enough DHA/EPA also seems to affect fat storage this is because when you are short the body switches up fat storage to try & grab every ounce of omega-3 fatty acids it can find & any other fat is just stored away as a by-product of that process, so if fat-loss is a goal you could be short changing yourself by not taking DHA/EPA pill.
So, with that in mind I prefer everyone I train to be taking DHA/EPA whatever their goal is, unless they a specific issue like excessive bleeding or similar as DHA/EPA can thin the blood, so consult your doctor before starting this supplement if that is the case.
Now you have some idea why you may want to take a DHA/EPA pill, but why take an algae-based pill as there are so many fish-based ones out there?  Well, first of all there is the obvious ethical issue.  Fish are animals, so avoiding killing them for a pill is always a good idea!  Secondly fish actually get the DHA/EPA from algae in the first place, but whereas algae are at the bottom of the food chain, krill & fish are both much higher up that chain & so toxins can build up in fats the higher up the food chain it goes, so whereas DHA/EPA from algae is ultra pure & free from virtually all contamination, you cannot guarantee the same sort of purity in any of the krill or fish based oils out there, so getting an algae-based oil makes total sense whatever dietary choice you make.  Finally you have to remember that DHA/EPA makes up only some parts of krill or fish oil which also contains saturated fats & other non-vital fats in their make-up & so some of the product is just extra fat in your diet.
There are several brands of algae-based DHA/EPA on the market right now, so let's look at the differences.  Most of the pills have around the same amount of DHA & EPA in them, but a couple of advantages with the Nuique brand are:
1/  They contain nothing but DHA & EPA - no other oils are added to bulk the product, so you get zero unnecessary added fat in your diet, you only get the Essential Fatty Acids you are after with nothing added, nothing taken away.  Some of the other brands have things like added omega-6 fatty acids, which are an essential fatty also, but everyone easily gets enough of them already.

2/ The second point relates to the first.  Due to the pills being only filled with DHA & EPA, with nothing else, they are also the smallest & easiest pills to swallow in this class that I have seen, so if you have any issues swallowing pills, then this could be vital to you.  I must admit I did a test of biting one open & it did kind of taste of the sea, that is about the best description I can give.  It was not horrible by any means, so if you really cannot swallow any pill then you can always pop it & either squeeze it into your mouth, add to a shake or similar.

Taking DHA/EPA could help achy joints, could help brain function, could help the immune system & could  help cells repair or replace as necessary.  Any one of these reasons should be enough for a person to consider adding this supplement to their list of regularly taken.  Adding a couple of pills costs pennies & could save a person so much that it hardly seems worth considering 'not' doing it!  So, if you are looking for a pill that contains only DHA & EPA & doesn't contain any fillers or other products you may not want, then this should product should definitely be one on your list to check out.
For more details check out http://www.nuique.com/ & at the time of writing they are offering a 3 for the price of 2 offer, so it really is dirt cheap to try out!

Hemp Milk

This has recently come out in Waitrose supermarkets chain & health food stores, so as it was on offer I thought I'd get hold of some just to see what it was like.  First off it's not as high in protein as a soya milk (about half), so if you are desperate for protein this may not be for you, but it's still a reasonable source for most people.  On the plus side it does have some very healthy fats in it naturally & does taste quite nice (250ml gives you half the recommended daily omega 3 fatty acids!).  It is fairly sweet, not sickly sweet, but as I tend to drink unsweetened soya milk you notice the difference.  It works well on cereal & does ok in hot drinks.  I've not used it for cooking.
I found the taste pretty good with a kind of nutty taste.  You can drink it for the carton if you like without it needing to be flavoured, it doesn't have any bad after tastes.
The fat content may look higher than say soya milk (nearer the amounts found in whole milk), but this fat is Essential fatty acids (EFAs) & so they will likely be used for cell creation, repair & other metabolic processes so it should not stored as body fat.  This can be a useful additional source of health fats.
Personally I can down a litre no problems.  Certainly any athlete wanting to add muscle mass will need enough EFAs to build those extra muscle cells & this can be a convenient source of those fats, a reasonable protein source & less carbs than cows milk (around half - a bit more than unsweetened soya milk, but much less than either whole or skimmed cows milk).  If you're not interested in added muscle mass everyone still needs EFAs for maximum health, so adding this drink can really benefit anyone, especially if you've not been taking care of your EFA intake before (or don't like flax, hemp seeds or walnuts for example).
I'd try it if you can get hold of it as it could be a useful tool in your nutritional arsenal.

For more details go to Good Hemp Milk

Test driving some hemp protein

Recently we at vegan bodybuilding hooked up with Caroline from Good Oils who asked us to try out their new Hemp protein powder. Having tried several varieties of hemp protein we agreed, with the proviso that we could say whatever we wanted about it. This wasn't a sponsorship or anything, just us giving you our honest take on the product.
OK first off the nutritional profile- well to be honest it is pretty good, in fact better than the comparable stuff from Canada (the main supplier of hemp protein concentrate in the world at the moment), it has a slightly higher fat content, & hemp is a great supplier of healthy fats & slightly lower in carbs (the overall calories being similar for both products). Plus as it's grown & processed in Devon in the UK then for anyone in Europe it makes more environmental sense to get it shipped from here than first dragged across the pond from Canada, so straight off the bat this new hemp protein scores a couple of points.
Obviously taste is a factor. We tried out the unflavoured. Hemp actually has about the best taste of any protein on the market that I've tried, so I wasn't sure how this product with the extra fat & less carbs would match up? Thankfully it tasted as good as any hemp protein I've tried. It will certainly become part of my regular dietary intake.
I must say I certainly can recommend this product & think that everyone in the UK & Europe should at least consider giving it a go as with the extra healthy fat (used in cell manufacture & numerous other hormonal, immune & other systems) & less carbs would suit those trying to gain or maintain lean muscle mass while keeping fat to a minimum.
Pricing is also a factor & again this is pretty competitively priced, with it's 2.5Kg tubs being lower priced than the bulk suppliers I compared them with.
To find out more about this new hemp protein click here. It certainly gets a big thumbs up from us!

Tiredness during workouts

I get quite a few emails a week about various issues & as I try to answer everyone who mails in. I suddenly thought today why not put up some issues that some of you might have & my suggestions. Well here's the first. This guy contacted me suffering from lack of endurance during workouts. Like most mails I get, it doesn't cover a lot of the issues that I really need to zero in on a problem, but it gave me a chance to give some general advice on what bases you should have covered if you suffered general fatigue - especially during or soon after exercise:

~~~~

Let's start with the basics & work from there. Basically what I would
do is implement only 1 thing & see if that's the cause, if not keep on
with that & add the next. You can try out any, or all, of the things I
mention, but it's best if you find the cause, so you're not stuck
thinking you need to do everything on the list, as I suspect you
won't.
First the most important for your health is B12, if you're not taking
it, you need to. I have all my trainees; meat-eaters, veggies, vegans
& raw food eaters take B12 daily. There is a technique to taking B12,
that isn't common knowledge. Under the tongue & at the back of the
throat are modified lymph capillaries, these can absorb (amongst other
things) B12 directly into the blood stream (via the lymphatic system).
So, the best way to take vitamin B12 is to buy a capsule or pill
containing B12 & B-complex, open the capsule or crush the pill & swill
the contents around your mouth for about 1 minute before swallowing,
that way you get a lot more B12 into you than just swallowing the
pill/capsule straight down. If you are low in B12 it will take a
while to feel the effects, as it needs to slowly get back into all the
trillions of cells in your body. one final point don't take B12 with
vitamin C pills, the C disrupts b12 assimilation, so if you are taking
both leave a little time between taking the two things (you can take
low level vitamin C, like in a multi vitamin/mineral pill with B12,
but not something like a 500mg + pill).
The second thing you need to address is your EFA (Essential fatty acid
levels & ratios). Most people are low in the omega 3 fatty acid
group. Most nuts, seeds & oils contain high levels of omega 6 fatty
acids, but are low in omega 3's. To balance this up I recommend that
you get hold of a cheap coffee grinder & every morning grind up 1 or 2
tablespoons of flax seed (linseed), you can add it to a morning shake,
to cereal, to porridge or just mix with soya milk & drink it,
whatever. You can add it to any hot thing, but do NOT heat it, always
add it after you've finished heating the product or you'll damage the
fats & waste your time.

The two things above are the 2 basics everyone should be doing
regardless of anything else. From now on expect to be doing this
every day!

Let's assume these are not the problem for you. The next obvious
thing is your diet. First off how often do you eat & when do you eat.
You should be splitting your eating into 6 feeds a day:

Breakfast
Mid-morning snack
Lunch
Mid-afternoon snack
Dinner
Supper

You should try & get decent food down you for every feed, not junk.
Plan on having a 'cheat' meal once or twice a week, like if you are
going to a party having one or two drinks & a few roasted nuts or
crisps (chips if you're from the US). That will be ok, providing the
rest of the week you're pretty strict & plan out your eating so you're
getting healthy food down you for most of the time.
Let's get to the workout nutrition specifics:

Pre-workout

About an hour or 2 before you workout the meal you have should have
some protein & contain complex carbs. The carbs will give you energy
to finish your workout.
The exact timing depends on your digestion. People digest at
different speeds, so workout how long it takes after a meal before you
feel ready to hit some weights.

I've covered my ideas on workout nutrition on the vegan bodybuilding
blog on this page
click here & click here


Post workout nutrition is THE most vital feed of the day. My views on
that are also on the blog on this page click here


Bear in mind these are what I'd consider IDEAL intakes, you don't need
all the supplements, but having at least some protein powder & a
simple carb source for when you train is a good idea. I don't
recommend any specific protein powder, soya, pea, hemp, rice protein
powders all work, for a simple carb source I tend to go for red grape
juice. It's high in glucose, contains antioxidants & other
phyto-chemicals that are useful to the body. I personally only use it
for training, so I freeze a carton of red grape juice into icecubes.
I add 1 or 2 cubes to my drink during training, then several cubes to
my after training drink.

Next up we'll move onto recovery. First off have there been any
changes in your life. Increased stress, different working or
recreational activities? Are you sleeping ok? Any other changes in
your life that could account for a loss in training ability? Have a
think, try & pinpoint any changes, next see what you can do to change
those.
The other option is could it be you training? Have you changed that,
have you been doing the same thing for a long time? Strangely enough
these 2 things can have similar effects on the body. If you've been
doing the same thing for a long time, your body gets stale & you need
to change your routine, if you've recently changed your routine it may
be that you aren't thriving on the new system & need to change things
up a bit.

Let me give you a few examples of possible issues, if they apply to
you, then think about how you can change things:

1/ Your working hard at work & the training on top is just wearing you out?
A/ Try an abbreviated routine of 1 or 2 exercises & see how you get
on. Focussing upon just a few exercises hard is better than many exercises in
a lacklustre manner.

2/ You're not eating properly?
A/ Today plan out your eating, get to the shops, buy the food you're
going to need & from tomorrow switch to a better eating plan. You may
need to cut back on training duration for a while as you recover, or
even take a few extra days off while internal supplies of nutrients build up.

3/ Haven't been using the proper nutrition before, during & after training?
A/ Getting these in place will increase your training intensity &
recovery. Expect good results over the next few weeks!

4/ Stress in my life is very high?
A/ If you can sort out the underlying issues you should be working on
getting the problems sorted out, if possible. If that is unfeasible
at the moment (such as work/domestic issues etc), then consider
abbreviating your training to allow for more recovery. Consider some
stress management practices such as meditation, positive
re-enforcement, visualisations etc.

5/ Inconsistent training?
A/ Write a plan you can stick to. Give yourself something that will
motivate you. Plan goals, short term, mid-term & long term, write
them down & maybe even tell someone. That will drive you towards your
goals.

Finally we'll move onto supplements. These do have their place, but
only after everything else is in place. They SUPPLEMENT your other
efforts. In order of importance I rate:

Protein powder
L-glutamine
BCAA's
creatine
beta alanine
citrulline malate

Although I do try out others as part of my research (you can't really
write about things without having tried them out), these are the one's
I've found work for most of my clients & myself. Let's look at these
a little more closely:

Protein powder:
You can take this whenever. A small amount during training & also
taking 30grams or so after training are the most vital, but you can
have them as part of a meal or snack.

L-glutamine:
I've found this to be an excellent immune booster & recovery aid in
both myself & clients. I tend to recommend that it's vital pre-post
workout, & if you feel the need AM/PM 5 grams per serving seems around
right for most people.

BCAA's:
These are basically a fuel source doing activity. The body burns
these as well as fats & carbs during any activity, so having them
before/during training can spare these amino acids. Why do we want to
'spare' them? Well the main source of BCAA's is the amino acids in
muscle. So, by exercising you are burning muscle! Taking BCAA's you
can offer the body an alternative source, so the muscle isn't going to
be broken down to be burnt as fuel.

Creatine:
I'll start off by saying I prefer creatine ethyl ester (CEE). To be
honest there is no reliable research to prove this is the most
effective version of creatine, but anecdotally just about all the
bodybuilders I've met & talked with backstage at bodybuilding shows
over the last few years have moved over to CEE & I myself have found
it more effective than other versions out there. You can take
whichever form you prefer though. Follow the dosing rules on the
package, but if you are trying out creatine monohydrate (CM) then
don't bother with the loading phase as it's just likely to cause you
cramps & bloating as anything else, go straight to maintainence levels
8 weeks on 4 weeks off.

beta alanaine:
Basically this increases strength & muscular endurance & delays
fatigue. A lot of guys are stacking this with creatine.

Citrulline malate
Another one that delays fatigue, but also can possibly increase NO
production. Also increases arginine levels more than taking arginine
directly. So, you can possibly get the increased pumps associated
with arginine with this product without the associated risk to herpes
(cold sore) sufferers.
~~~~~
That was one reply I gave to a guy who had a problem & thought it might of interest to some of you out there?
Often, especially the new vegan can feel added fatigue. This is usually down to the fact that vegan food is less calorifically dense that a meat based diet (you need to eat more folks!). In most cases increasing the amount on your plate &/or adding more feeds per day will sort out your tiredness. I often hear excuses like the flora in your digestive tract is changing, you’re detoxifying etc. This might be true, but more often than not the actual cause, when we get down to real-world fixes is to eat MORE. Pick healthy food & keep an eye on your protein intake, like anyone training you do, in my view, need a decent amount of protein. Keep your protein up & calories high & you tend to lessen these fatigue symptoms. Finally, if you’re suffering on your diet, you are doing something wrong, don’t suffer, or live with it, get it sorted out! Seek advice about nutrition from someone who’s had some experience with vegan athletes or nutrition for very active people.
For some useful advice you could try asking on the veganbodybuilding email list we have nutritionists, competing bodybuilders, powerlifters & strongman competitors click here